Idaho's state Board of Education has signed off on a new five-year, $11.7 million contract for Boise State football coach Chris Petersen, the Associated Press reports; the board unanimously approved the new contract at its meeting today in Moscow. Petersen's new package includes a bump in base pay each of the five years plus a series of incentives, according to the AP; they include a $250,000 annual licensing payment for use of Petersen's name and image. Earlier this year, the board approved giving Petersen a $375,000 raise for 2012. The contract is designed to keep Petersen's salary competitive and retain him as the head of the Broncos highly successful football program.

Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) ― Faculty governance at Idaho State University will again be revamped under a plan endorsed by the state Board of Education. The board voted Thursday to approve the recommendation from school President Arthur Vailas, who called for the election of a new Faculty Senate this fall. The board voted last year to dissolve the previous Faculty Senate, which been at loggerheads with Vailas. The university then elected new, temporary faculty leaders to work with Vailas to adopt a new constitution. The provisional Faculty Senate was due to sunset this month, or upon the completion of constitution. But the two sides appeared far from a consensus in February, when faculty reported they had reached an impasse with Vailas. Vailas recommended work on the constitution continue with a new, permanent Faculty Senate.

The State Board of Education has approved tuition and fee increases proposed by the state's colleges and universities for next year as requested by each institution: 4 percent for Lewis-Clark State College; 6.1 percent for the University of Idaho; 5.7 percent for Boise State University; 4.7 percent for Idaho State University; and 4.7 percent for Eastern Idaho Technical College. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

All the votes were unanimous except the U of I and BSU increases, which passed on 5-2 votes, after board member Ken Edmunds said he worried that state lawmakers expected lower increases and said, “Regardless of what's happening in other states, the barrier to our students is significant … due to financial issues.” Edmunds and board President Richard Westerberg cast the dissenting votes.

Student body officials from the schools backed the increases; among their reasons: If the schools can't hire enough instructors for them to get the classes they need, they can't graduate on time, and their education will cost even more. BSU President Bob Kustra told the board, “We are all dealing with what is a balancing act, balancing affordability against the quality of the education we are able to afford our students.” He noted that after an extensive public-involvement program on his campus, the recommendation presented to him was for a 7.2 percent increase, but he worried about the message that would send to prospective parents and students “about the cost of higher education today. … I came down on 5.7 percent as a realistic approach to what Boise State needs to fund itself.”

He noted, “We are agonizing here over what is … some of the most modest, affordable, bargain-rated tuitions anywhere in the United States of America. That's really a credit, I think, to this board, it's a credit to the universities the board holds responsible that we can do what we do with the minimum expenditure from our students when it comes to tuition.”

ISU President Arthur Vailas told the board that public university tuition has been going up across the country for years, whether state appropriations are up or down. “It's because the universities … have been in a catch-up mode for the last 25 years,” he said.

Board member Milford Terrell, who made all the motions, cited “the compelling arguments that I've heard here today that we're still under most of our sister institutions throughout the United States. … We're still the best deal in town.”

Here's a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) ― The University of Idaho's student body president says more than 6,300 signatures were collected on a petition asking the state Board of Education to reconsider removing the proposed term “flagship” from the school's updated mission statement. Samantha Perez implored trustees Wednesday to revisit their decision, prompting a chuckle when noting more people signed the petition than live in Preston ― board president Richard Westerberg's home town. Westerberg responded, tongue-in-cheek: “We are working on our population.” Perez and others approached trustees over the “flagship” removal during a board meeting in Moscow. School officials have long used the term “flagship” to brand the university, Idaho's oldest, but it was only added to a proposed new mission statement last year. Board members didn't deem the term appropriate and it was struck in February.

The state board of Education is currently hearing pitches from state universities for tuition fee hikes for next year; University of Idaho President Duane Nellis said the UI's proposed 6.1 percent increase is “a very important figure to help us stabilize our situation after four years of cuts.” It would mean an additional $356 a year for resident students. Samantha Perez, student body president, told the board students have been strongly supportive of the plan. “I haven't received one verbal or written complaint about the proposal,” she said. If the increase were approved, the UI's resident tuition and fees for a year would rise to $6,212, Nellis said, while the average among comparable schools is nearly $8,300. You can watch the meeting live online here.
  

Idaho's state universities overall are looking at lower tuition increases next year than they've imposed in recent years, AP reporter Jessie Bonner reports; the universities will make their pitch to the State Board of Education next week. Click below to read Bonner's full report.

Idaho's state Board of Education has named Marilyn Whitney its new chief communications and legislative affairs officer, replacing Mark Browning, who left for a position as a vice president at North Idaho College. Whitney was formerly the statewide community outreach coordinator for the Idaho National Laboratory; she previously spent 15 years in corporate communications at Micron Technology and two years at the Idaho Department of Fish & Game. Mike Rush, state board executive director, said Whitney was selected from “a pool of highly qualified applicants.” She holds both bachelor's and master's degrees from Boise State University; you can see the board's full announcement here. Whitney will be paid $75,300, the same salary Browning received.

Idaho's state Board of Education, in a special meeting this afternoon, named Steven Albiston the new president of Eastern Idaho  Technical College, replacing Burton Waite, who will retire at the end of December. Albiston, an eastern Idaho native and longtime EITC employee, is the current vice president for instruction and student affairs. Click below for the board's full announcement.

Richard Westerberg, president of the Idaho State Board of Education, said after the board's unanimous vote to approve an online-class requirement for high school graduation, “We certainly received some input.” He said, “The board is firmly behind online learning. We believe it's imperative moving forward that our students be able to have skills in that area.” Mark Browning, state board spokesman, noted that many of the public comments objected to the law calling for requiring online courses. “That ship has sailed,” Browning said. “We have a law passed by the Legislature.”

Westerberg said the public comments received in public hearings across the state, which were largely negative as were those received in the final comment period on the rule, “actually informed what the rule might be.” He said, “Two credits is actually a fairly modest requirement.” State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna's original proposal was to require eight online classes for graduation.

Westerberg said, “There is no equivocation among the board members - that's an area that we need to get good at, our students need to get good at.” You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

The Idaho Education Association has issued a statement in response to the state Board of Education's vote today to require every Idaho student to take two online classes to graduate from high school, saying in part, “Idaho educators, parents, and students see value in online classes. We recognize that they are a good choice for many students. However, Idahoans have said repeatedly since last January that the decision to take online classes should be made by students and their parents, not by the state.” Click below for the full statement.

State Board member Don Soltman, who made the motion to approve the online class requirement, said, “For the record, during the 21-day comment period there were … additional comments,” generally saying that they “felt there should not be an online learning requirement.” He said, “Additional concerns were expressed” about financial impacts on school districts and on the Idaho Digital Learning Academy.

Board member Milford Terrill said he had a discussion about the rule with his grandson. “He's a home schooler, and he is now in one of our universities here in the state of Idaho, and he's writing a paper in his English class on why this is so important to kids, to have these credits in being able to do stuff online, because he, everything he does, his assignments, everything that the teacher has to say, he has to go online to find that out. And now he's doing a speech, as we speak, in communications class as to why this is important. And I found that very interesting, a kid 19 years old, is writing an epistle on why this is good and giving speeches on why we should have this in our institutions, and in our K-12 program. So I thought that was pretty good.”

The board's unanimous vote means Idaho students now must take two online classes to graduate from high school. The Legislature will review the rule during its session that starts in January, but it already passed the school-reform legislation that called for the new online-class requirement.
  

State Board of Education members have voted 8-0 in favor of requiring every Idaho student to take two online classes to graduate from high school, a rule that's been widely panned at public hearings across the state and drawn mostly negative public comment, but is a centerpiece of state schools Supt. Tom Luna's “Students Come First” school reform plan.

Idaho's state Board of Education also is scheduled to vote this afternoon on whether to make Idaho the first state in the nation to require high school students to take at least two classes online to graduate, a proposal that's come in for heavy criticism across the state; the state board's staff is recommending the board give the rule its final approval. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Jessie Bonner on the issue.

There's a full house for this afternoon's Idaho State Board of Education meeting, which has two hot-button items on its agenda: A conference change for intercollegiate athletics at Boise State University, and final approval of a rule requiring every Idaho high school student to take two online classes to graduate from high school.

BSU President Bob Kustra told the board that the Mountain West “is simply not the same conference that we first agreed to join. … My hope for a competitive and compact conference has been dashed.” Now, he said, BSU football has been in talks with the Big East. “We're really honored to be considered for membership,” Kustra said. “It would be good not only for athletics but for the entire university to forge new relationships.” Kustra said he's concerned about travel, but said, “The good news is that the Big East is working to provide us partners through the creation of a western division.”

He said, “There have been no formal invitations, but today I seek your authorization to make a decision once an invitation is extended, and also to make a decision regarding what conference basketball” and other BSU sports would be in.

Idaho's State Board of Education today endorsed legislation to lift the cap on the number of new charter schools that can be created each year, but the 3-2 vote came only after the proposal was limited to no more than one new charter school per school district. “The concern was that you could cripple a school district if more than one charter school were approved in a year,” board spokesman Mark Browning said during the board's meeting at Lewis-Clark State College. “There will be continued work on this, but for now it's been green-lighted.” Click below for a full report from AP reporter Jessie L. Bonner.

Mark Browning, the chief communications and legislative officer for the Idaho State Board of Education, has been named the new vice president for community relations and marketing at North Idaho College. He was selected after a nationwide search, to replace retiring Vice President John Martin. Browning has been with the state board since 2007; prior to that, he was news director for KBCI CBS 2 News Boise, where he supervised a staff of 40; he also worked at other news organizations in southern Idaho and is a former president of the Idaho Press Club.

NIC President Priscilla Bell said Browning will serve as a “liaison between the college and the counties we serve,” and added, “His extensive experience in government relations will no doubt reinforce NIC's legislative efforts as well.” Browning said, “This is a tremendous opportunity for me professionally and for my family. And I'm looking forward to becoming a part of the NIC family.” He'll start his new job on Jan. 2.

Eastern Idaho Technical College President Burton Waite says he'll retire on Dec. 31, prompting the state Board of Education today to announce a national search for a replacement. Waite has headed the state college in Idaho Falls since July of 2008. “I have absolutely enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. You can read a full announcement here from the State Board of Education.

Here's a news item from the Associated Press:  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Faculty governance at Idaho State University is in for a shake-up under a plan endorsed by the state Board of Education. The board voted Thursday to allow the university to move forward with the election of new faculty leaders within the next two weeks. That follows the board's decision in February to dissolve Idaho State University's previous Faculty Senate, which been at loggerheads with school President Arthur Vailas and voted “no confidence” in him. Vailas faced mounting criticism and pressure from faculty to step down, but board members threw their support behind the embattled school president at the Pocatello-based campus. With the board's approval, the university is now expected to elect a temporary Faculty Senate to adopt a new constitution and bylaws within one year.

The Idaho State Board of Education has voted to approve, as requested, proposed tuition and fee increases from the state's four-year colleges and universities: 8.4 percent at the University of Idaho; 7 percent each at ISU and LCSC; and 5 percent at Boise State University. “The institutions have a very difficult challenge,” said state board President Richard Westerberg. “Declining funding from the state of Idaho places more burden on students and their family. The proposals before us today reflected a cooperative effort between administrations, faculty, staff and students.” You can read the board's full announcement here.

Then, the state board heard from and questioned state schools Superintendent Tom Luna about his “Students Come First” reform plan, including online course requirements; some members expressed reservations about setting a rule requiring online courses before a state task force finishes studying the issue, while others supported more online courses sooner. The board asked its staff to look into the process it should follow, and said it may hold a special meeting on the matter this spring; then on Thursday, it appointed board secretary Don Soltman to work with staff on that. “Don's going to take a couple of weeks and get with staff and work with all of us on, is this possible, in terms of meeting the time requirements to have a rule before the Legislature in January and all of that,” said board spokesman Mark Browning. The board may form a task force, but it's “not yet constituted,” he said. Far from being “up and running” on developing a rule, Browning said, “We're still trying to figure out where we're running to.”

As the Idaho State Board of Education meets today to consider student tuition and fee increases at the state's colleges and universities, it has a new member: William H. Goesling of Moscow, a former Naval aviator and educator and retired financial consultant, has been named to the board by Gov. Butch Otter, to replace Moscow attorney Paul Agidius, whose term expired March 1. Click below to read Otter's full announcement of the appointment.